1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to electrical connectors and, in particular, to insulation displacement connectors for surfaces mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. Description of the Related Art
An insulation displacement connector (IDC) forms a connection with an insulated conductor, such as a wire, by using a contact that can pierce the insulation to make contact with and connect to the conductor. IDCs are used extensively in the telecommunications industry because they can very quickly terminate a large number of wires. For the same reason, IDCs are now increasingly used on printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Insulation displacement connectors have become popular because they are highly economical and a cost-effective method for performing wire terminations. No wire or cable preparation is required. IDCs are designed to reduce wire termination cost by elimination the need to remove the insulation from the wire before terminating it. When a wire is inserted into the IDC slot, the piercing contacts cut and displace the wire insulation and pierce it and make contact with the conductor wires surrounded by the insulation.
Many designs for IDCs are known in the art. However, these known IDCs are unsuitable for use with surface mounting technology (SMT). SMT generally requires that an electrical contact be compact in size and light in weight and have a small footprint. The electrical contact must also be heat resistant and compatible with common soldering techniques used in SMT. In addition, since the most common pickup mechanism is a vacuum nozzle of a pick-and-place machine, it is desirable that electrical contacts for surface mounting have at least on suitable flat surface to which a vacuum nozzle can abut against and apply a sufficient vacuum for effective pickup.